Meet The Gallery – Barbara Krakow Gallery (IFPDA)

Date: 29th December 2016

Posted by: printededitions_admin

An Exclusive Interview With Barbara Krakow, Owner of Barbara Krakow Gallery.Barbara Krakow Gallery features contemporary art of all media by emerging and established regional, national and international artists. The overall focus is on Minimal, reductivist and conceptually-driven works.

Q. Where are you based and how long has the gallery been dealing in fine prints?

BK: We are based on Newbury Street in Boston

Q. How did you start in the art business?

BK: I started in 1960. It came about because I was finding wonderful prints by Giacometti and others in Paris for a lot less than I found them for in Boston, so I bought some, brought them back and sold them. Simultaneous to that, I was being asked to “hang art” in a theater. One thing led to another and I opened our first gallery in a carriage house in Newton. I soon partnered with someone else, moved the gallery to Harvard Square, then Newbury Street, went through various iterations (including working with three other partners and running a large warehouse space for large scale painting and sculpture) and finally, in 1983 went out on my own. We show works in a mixture of media – the various print forms are only part of what we do, but we are committed to them.

BARBARA KRAKOW GALLERY (IFPDA)BordrouantEllsworth Kelly

Q. Which artists / art movements do you specialise in?

BK: In 1965, we hosted a show of Ellsworth Kelly’s early prints. In 1970 we hosted the first survey of Sol LeWitt’s prints. In 1972, we hosted the first exhibition in the US of Joseph Beuys’ work. These are just three examples of the longstanding commitment to Minimal, Conceptual, Poltically-minded and reductivist (aesthetically) work. Recently, we completed the Catalogue Raisonné of Sol LeWitt’s prints (www.sollewittprints.org) and are currently finishing up Mel Bochner’s Catalogue Raisonné of prints, so you can see we don’t only exhibit and sell the works, but have a long history of trying to help the artists, the print medium and scholarship, at large.

Q. What were some of the first prints you bought and sold?

BK: Giacometti, Kelly, Vasarely, among others.

BARBARA KRAKOW GALLERY (IFPDA)Brown / Black Zone PrintRobert Mangold

Q. Who is your personal favourite artist and why?

BK: To say just one artist would be a lie – so many artists have so brilliantly, generously and specifically shared their work with the world in ways that continually move me.

BARBARA KRAKOW GALLERY (IFPDA) On A Clear Day #12 Agnes Martin

Q. If you could own just one print, which would it be?

BK: Never would I be able to do that – I do believe in equality and to state one being absolutely the most important goes against everything in my being!

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